With the Americans and Europeans retreating to separate sides of the paddock and the mist of battle slowly settling to earth, one thing was clear: There's no clear winner. Both sides showed a lot of heart, the Europeans having the overall edge in handling finesse, sophistication and sheer high-revving excitement, whereas the Americans showed their mettle with big pistons, thundering torque and a general blunt-force trauma approach to battle. Of course, the Europeans are a far pricier lot, but the stopwatch registers in seconds, not dollar signs.

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Things might have turned out quite differently if this wasn't a strictly track-focused event, but certain soldiers stood out as worthy of commendation. On the American side, the Viper gets the nod. On paper, the GT and Z06 outperform it in acceleration, but its grip, confidence factor, controllability and effortless, explosive torque make it the track-day darling. On the European side, it's the F430. It simply goes where you put it, has no bad habits, can be tuned to your every driving whim and looks (and sounds) fantastic, lap after glorious lap.